The Surprising Reason Behind Lee Hyun-Yi's Gifted Son

Korean supermodel and YouTube personality Lee Hyun-yi has made a claim that's equal parts hilarious and genuinely heartwarming — and the internet is completely on board with it.

In a recent video on her YouTube channel Working Mom Lee Hyun-yi (워킹맘 이현이), the model-turned-broadcaster shared that she recently watched the movie The Man Living With the King (왕과 사는 남자), starring actor and singer Park Ji-hoon — a man she has been an openly devoted fan of for years. What followed was a cascade of fan emotions, an extremely specific tissue-warning, and a moment that had her viewers thoroughly entertained.

But Lee Hyun-yi's renewed fan energy came with context that made the story genuinely remarkable: her eldest son Yun-seo had just been accepted into the Center for Talented Youth (CTY) at Johns Hopkins University in the United States — a program that accepts only students who score in the top 10 percent of IQ assessments.

Lee Hyun-yi's explanation for her son's extraordinary achievement? Years of dedicated Park Ji-hoon fandom, including during her pregnancy. "Prenatal influence," she implied with her characteristic humor. The internet, naturally, has been losing its mind ever since.

Who Is Lee Hyun-Yi?

For anyone unfamiliar, Lee Hyun-yi is one of South Korea's most recognizable supermodels. She appeared on virtually every major runway and campaign throughout the peak of her modeling career, and her distinctive mix of elegance and relatability made her a persistent presence in Korean fashion and entertainment media. In recent years, she has leaned into a different kind of public identity: the working mom.

Her YouTube channel, which documents her life balancing professional commitments with raising children, has built a substantial following precisely because of how honestly she presents the contradictions and joys of that particular juggling act. She doesn't perform perfection — she shares reality, which in Korean celebrity culture remains something of a rarity.

Part of what makes the channel work so well is her willingness to be openly, unapologetically herself — including the part of herself that is a dedicated, slightly obsessive fan of Park Ji-hoon.

Park Ji-Hoon and the Wink That Started It All

Lee Hyun-yi's fandom for Park Ji-hoon is not a recent development. In her video, she traced it all the way back to his appearance on the audition reality program where he first captured national attention, long before his acting career took off in earnest. That moment — which many fans know as the origin of his nickname "윙크남" (Wink Guy) — struck Lee Hyun-yi with apparently lasting force.

Park Ji-hoon debuted as a member of the idol group Wanna One after finishing second on Produce 101 Season 2 in 2017. His subsequent solo career as both a singer and an actor has been marked by a consistent effort to take on roles that challenge the clean-cut image he was initially associated with. His film The Man Living With the King represents one of the more ambitious projects of that ongoing evolution.

Lee Hyun-yi confirmed she brought tissues to the screening. She came prepared. "얼굴이 서사다" — roughly translating to "his face alone tells the whole story" — was her verdict afterward. It is, by any standard, an excellent review.

Yun-Seo's Johns Hopkins Achievement

The Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth is not a casual program. Founded in 1979, CTY is one of the world's most respected gifted education initiatives, and its admission process is deliberately designed to be exclusive. Students must first qualify through standardized assessment scores placing them in the top 10 percent of IQ range for their age — and even then, admission to specific programs isn't guaranteed.

When the news that Lee Hyun-yi's son Yun-seo had been accepted into CTY emerged through her social media posts earlier this month, the response across Korean online communities was immediate and enthusiastic. The achievement itself would have been noteworthy regardless — but the combination with her Park Ji-hoon devotion created something the internet is uniquely good at celebrating: a story with a perfect, slightly absurd narrative arc.

Fans quickly coined the phrase "박지훈 태교 효과" — the Park Ji-hoon prenatal influence effect — as a half-serious, half-humorous theory crediting Lee Hyun-yi's long-standing fandom for her son's intellectual gifts. Yun-seo's father is a Samsung Electronics engineer, which perhaps provides a slightly more conventional genetic explanation. But where's the fun in that?

The Internet's Delighted Response

The story spread quickly through Korean entertainment communities for obvious reasons. It hits every note that makes for viral content: a beloved public figure being thoroughly and authentically herself, a genuinely impressive achievement by her child, a humorous claim that is simultaneously self-deprecating and celebratory, and a favorite celebrity getting credited for something wildly outside his professional responsibilities.

Comments across various platforms have included fans tagging Park Ji-hoon to inform him of his apparent contributions to Korean education, suggestions that Lee Hyun-yi should send him a thank-you note, and a surprising number of people sharing their own experience of similar "prenatal influence" theories from their own families.

What the story really demonstrates, beyond its obvious entertainment value, is something genuine about Lee Hyun-yi's public persona: she is the rare celebrity who makes fandom feel human and unpretentious rather than curated or aspirational. Her willingness to be openly a fan — not of her own work, not of the industry she operates in, but of another artist's talent — is part of what makes her channel feel worth watching.

What Comes Next

Park Ji-hoon, for his part, has remained characteristically quiet on social media regarding his newly attributed contributions to Korean gifted education. His film The Man Living With the King continues to generate conversation among fans and critics, and his career trajectory — steadily building toward meatier roles that test the range he's been quietly developing — suggests more compelling work ahead.

Lee Hyun-yi, meanwhile, will presumably continue her life exactly as she has been: running a YouTube channel with genuine personality, raising children who appear to be doing extremely well, and seeing every Park Ji-hoon project immediately, ideally with tissues.

In a media landscape often dominated by carefully constructed narratives and impeccably managed public images, there's something genuinely refreshing about a story this straightforwardly joyful. Sometimes a supermodel's son gets into a prestigious gifted program, and sometimes that calls for a celebration — and a very earnest attribution to the power of sustained fan devotion.